Life in the Garden Part 47: Trading Beer for Beans

Oh, the sacrifices we make for our gardens. For three days, I have surrendered beer for my pole beans.

I planted the starters 10 days ago, and all was well. Last year, the pole beans were one of my easiest crops. All I had to do was plant the seeds and they took off.  I had snacks available every time I stepped onto the deck.

Late last week, it looked like my arch nemesis, the aphid, was back. Those little green suckers have chomped way too many leaves on me in the past. I rushed out to the nursery and grabbed a bottle of Neem Oil and was ready to go to battle the next day.

But the holes in the leaves seemed a lot bigger than they should have been. I doubled down on the spray in the daylight. On Sunday evening, as it got a little darker, I realized the aphids were a mere distraction.  

My attacker this time was bigger.

Slimmier.  

Sluggier.

Slugs. I founds a slug on a leaf.  

In damp, dark Seattle, slugs are as common as Thai food and coffee. But I don’t have ordinary slugs. I have industrious slugs.

Caffeinated slugs.

These slug in my pole beans didn’t just crawl over from the neighbor’s yard or the nearest salmon run.  My pole beans are planted in a big container. On a rubber covered deck.  60 feet in the air.

And they got up there.

I don’t know if they hitched a ride on a bird, snuck in with the plants from the nursery, or scaled the side of the building.

Fortunately, if there’s one thing we learned from The Simpsons, it’s that beer is the perfect solution to any problem.

Slugs like beer, and slugs are dumb. I built slug traps.

To deal with slugs,  you can dig a small hole in the dirt, and bury a small yogurt container up to the rim, and pour in some beer about a quarter or half way and leave it overnight.  The scent of beer will attract the slugs. The slimy bastards will wiggle their way over to feast on the beer. They’ll slither down the side for a sip, reach the beer, dive in, and drown.  The beer gorging is like 1:00 AM at a Capitol Hill bar with cheap pitchers and unlimited chicken wings. Only most bar goers don’t drown in their meal. Most.

My new nightly ritual involves dumping the previous night’s flat beer and dead slugs into a zip lock bag, which I then drop drown the trash chute. Then I open another beer and [sob] refill the container.  Then I drink the rest of the beer.

Tonight I took it another step. I added a small, formerly-juiced-filled bottle on its side with more beer bait.  I have to get more creative with these slugs.

Because I think the slugs are getting bigger. They’re starting to level up. Again.

Tokyo Travels Part 14: Asahi Breer Hall

The ride up the Sumida River took us to the Asakusa neighborhood (which had its own level of craziness going on).  Across the river from the dock stood one of the most striking structures in the Asakusa skyline -- The Asahi Beer Hall.

Asahi is is one Japan's largest beer companies.  The headquarters features two buildings -- the golden, taller one, meant to evoke a tall glass of beer, and the smaller, more architecturally striking one that people around the world recognize.

That thing on top is officially called the "Flaming Ornament," but it is known by many other names as well.  Some refer to it as a parsnip, others by its nickname, "The Golden Turd."  It's certainly an odd element to see.

The tour guide suggested it lays on its side due to a design error. It was intended to stand up on its bulbous end and really call to mind the the brewery's Dynamic Heart.  The flame turned out to be too heavy, though, and the in the end they had to lay it down.  (I've haven't confirmed that part of the story, but it seems plausible).

More pictures of Tokyo are here.

More of my Tokyo Travels posts are here.

Star Wars in Georgetown

On Friday, The GF, her former roommate, and I had dinner at The Georgetown Liquor Club Company.  It's a pub in a mainly industrial area of Seattle, just north of Boeing Field and right next to a set of active train tracks.  You know they best thing about this place was?  This:

It's the vector graphics Star Wars arcade game introduced in 1983.  It's probably been 15-20 years since I've played it, and it's still awesome.

In it you pilot Red 5's X-Wing fighter through a dog fight with Tie Fighters, across the surface of the Death Star against a series of gun turrets, and finally through the Death Star trench blowing up more turrets and dodging inconveniently placed beams until you finally drop your payload into that exhaust port that surely got some architect fired.

My favorite way to play this game was in the sit-down cabinet version they had at Electric Avenue in the Green Acres Mall.  But for now they stand-up version will be fine.

The food?  That was surprisingly good, too.  It's a vegetarian pub.  I'm not anti-vegetarian, but I am suspicious of that cult.  The food here was quite tasty though.

And raise your Geek flag higher, because it's all geek themed, with dishes named for Star Trek characters, Land of the Lost inhabitants, Penny Arcade denizens, and Battlestar Galactica profanity.  Check out the menu here.  And to top it off, they have Guinness on tap.

Good music, video games, tasty food, nice beer selection, and geek-friendly?  Throw in some bacon and beef and you may as well forward my mail.

Elysian Brewery

To celebrate my turning 27 for the 13th time on Wedneday, the GF and I went to the Elysian Brewing Company on Capitol Hill.

I'm sorry to say that I've lived on First Hill for 8 years and today was the first time I've been there.  I'm only starting to explore the close by, east-of-Broadway aspects of my neighborhood.

We had a nice, low-key dinner.  No one had the Delmonico.  I had a smoked mozzarella ravioli dish; the GF had a burger and fries.  We started with Nachos, which came covered with a layer of cheese so thick it resembled a comforter for the chips.  The entrees were good, but not spectacular.

We did have some fantastic potato and bacon soup, though. Order that if they have it the next time you're there. (For more on Bacon, click here;  for more on Bacon shoes, click here.)

Most people don't go there primarily for the food.  It's all about the beer.  They had a number of interesting looking seasonal brews, but I kept it simple and went for the Elysian Sampler.

It was a great way to compare some excellent beers, and something I don't get to do often. 

I've been a Guinness drinker for a while, and I've always been a fan of Stouts and Porters.  The sampler was a good opportunity to confirm that.  In the back of my head, I sometimes wondered if I preferred them because it was "cooler" or "tougher" or "more macho" to drink dark beers.  Those are normally not things I attempt to achieve with my food preferences, but I needed to be sure.

And yes, I did confirm that I still prefer the Porter from the sampler. It simply tastes better to me.

It is a deeper flavor than the other brews.  It lack the sharp bite of the Pilsner or the aftertaste of the IPA.  The Jasime had a pleasant floral scent but lacked the roundness of an Apricot Ale.  The ESB was my second favorite with its clean taste that stays with you.  And they were all good; there're no bad beers here.

But the Porter remained my favorite with it's thick, warm coating.  That slight, complex smokiness rounded out the dinner nicely.

It's the kind of beer I could see drinking at a corporate retreat at a ski lodge.  After a long day of meetings, followed by a few hours in the snow, I could see myself sitting off the side drinking the Porter.  5 to 7 people would be sitting in the room discussing and then arguing about some business problem.  And I can clearly see they're all missing the point.  I sit back, slowly sipping my rich beverage and finally know I have to put a stop to this.  I take another drink of the soothing elixer, wipe my lip on napkin, and stand up.  I step into the group and call for an end to the argument.  Then I explain the point they were all missing.  I may not solve the problem, but in choosing that moment, I bring the disucssion around to where it should have been in the first place.  And everyone goes back to working through the issue.

That's how the Porter feels.

More to come in the next few days about some of the nifty gifts I got.